Perry tops Hutchison in Texas primary

AUSTIN, Texas — Riding a wave of growing anti-Washington anger, Texas Gov. Rick Perry easily dispatched Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and a challenger backed by some in the tea party movement Tuesday to once again become the Republican nominee for the state’s top office.

Speaking shortly after Hutchison called him to concede, Perry continued the attack on the nation’s capital that powered him past the state’s senior senator, slamming Washington on spending, job losses, the heath care debate and for “trying to impose education standards” on Texas.

“From Driftwood, Texas, to Washington, D.C., we are sending you a message tonight: Stop messin’ with Texas!” Perry said to a throng of cheering supporters at the famous Salt Lick barbecue restaurant in Driftwood, just outside of Austin.

With more than 90 percent of precincts reporting, Perry led with 51 percent to Hutchison’s 30 percent. Perry managed to avoid a runoff even though nearly one in five voters cast ballots for the third candidate — Debra Medina, a GOP party activist who has strong libertarian leanings and supporters in the tea party movement.

Medina raised relatively little money and told talk show host Glenn Beck there were “some very good arguments” that the U.S. was involved in the 2001 terrorist attacks, yet she still managed to win over scores of voters who might have otherwise sided with the deeply conservative Perry.

She might have done better had Perry not identified with the same anti-Washington sentiment just as the tea party movement was taking off a year ago — and jumped aboard. He spoke to tea party activists on April 15, 2009 — federal income tax filing day — and in response to a question by The Associated Press even flirted with the idea of Texas seceding from the Union.

“I think he sensed at that early date that there was a very strong feeling that Washington was going too far in taxation and regulation,” said longtime Republican consultant Reggie Bashur.

“A lot of people did not understand, including myself, the growing resentment, the growing opposition in the state toward Washington, D.C.,” Bashur said. “I think the governor and his team recognized and became a leader in the anti-Washington movement. And movement I think is the appropriate word. It was in its infancy then.”

Perry will face former Houston Mayor Bill White, who easily defeated Houston hair-care magnate Farouk Shami and five other Democrats to win his party’s nomination for governor and immediately turned on Perry.

“Today, the Texans who cast their votes … sent a clear signal,” White said in Houston. “Texas is ready for a new governor.”

White saluted the two Republicans who challenged Perry for the GOP nomination, saying he admires their courage for taking on a “career politician” who knows every “trick in the book.”

Already the state’s longest-serving governor, Perry hammered Hutchison for her ties to the nation’s capital as he pressed hard for a third, full four-year term. He criticized her votes in favor of bailing out troubled financial institutions when George W. Bush was president; Perry’s spokesman called her “Kay Bailout.”

Hutchison said last week she tried to remind voters that she always fought for Texas values in Congress, but admitted during an interview that Perry had succeed in sticking her with a Washington label.

“I think the senator tried to focus on Texas issues and what she would do to lead Texas into the future. And I think she was just overtaken by a wave of anti-Washington sentiment that all members of Congress are being swept up in,” said Hutchison spokeswoman Jennifer Baker.

“Her record is conservative. It was unfortunate that there was that national anti-Washington sentiment that overtook the race and took the focus off Texas issues.”

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